


Study in Tie-Dye

by kj_graham



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Light Angst, M/M, Some Fluff, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, sam being an idiot in love, this is a soulmate au and a college au simultaneously, yup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24466240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kj_graham/pseuds/kj_graham
Summary: And then Castiel dropped the bombshell that Sam always hated to hear.“Gabriel’s coming,” Cas had added nonchalantly.That was the moment Sam knew he was so totally screwed.ORSam Winchester is madly in love with Gabriel Novak, but has never let him close enough to touch out of fear that he won't be Sam's soulmate.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Gabriel/Sam Winchester
Comments: 10
Kudos: 240





	Study in Tie-Dye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [quicksilvermalec](https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilvermalec/gifts).



> Deannnnnnnnnn. De. Deanbean. This fic is for you. I hope you enjoy it and it puts a smile on your face. I love you very much and I hope I did Sabriel justice. 
> 
> Please enjoy. <3 <3

_That’s it_ , Sam thought, shivering from the water dripping from his hair. _I am just not cut out for parties._

He should have just stayed back in the apartment like he’d wanted to. But then Dean and Cas had convinced him to come, and now? A mess. A disaster. Stupid Dean. Stupid Cas. Stupid parties. Stupid feelings.

Maybe Sam should back up a little.

It was a Friday night. They were entering their last full month of the semester. Cas’s friend Balthazar had dropped them the invite to a house party happening not too far away from campus.

Dean, of course, had been the first one to agree. He was eager to engage in a night of debauchery, free from the stresses of school and the demands of work. Sam just wanted to stop being jealous of the vibrant sprawl of colors filling in the handprint on Dean’s left shoulder, sticking out like a neon sign under his muscle tee.

Cas hadn’t taken much convincing at all. Dean barely even had to look at him with hope oozing from every pore and Cas was giving in, scrubbing a rainbow hand over his chin.

And then they turned to Sam.

“Sammy,” Dean said. “You don’t really wanna spend the whole night here, do you?”

Sam had just shrugged. He didn’t see a problem with it. In fact, it would be relaxing to have the whole apartment to himself. He would get a break from having to live in fear of hearing or seeing parts of his brother he’d rather not hear or see.

They’d bickered back and forth for a few minutes. Sam was stubbornly insisting on staying behind and Dean was stubbornly insisting on him coming along.

And then Castiel dropped the bombshell that Sam always hated to hear.

“Gabriel’s coming,” Cas had added nonchalantly.

That was the moment Sam knew he was so totally screwed.

He’d been in love with Gabriel Novak practically since he met the man. Castiel had already been dating Dean, even back then. They’d just moved in together—sans Sam, who was only a freshman and had to live in the mandatory freshman dorms—and Sam had been there to complain about some professor or another when an extremely petite guy with swoopy caramel hair and a giant Cheshire Cat grin had strolled into the apartment, yelling for “Cassie.”

He was gorgeous. And Castiel’s older brother. And _gorgeous_. And charming. Ridiculously charming. Even more charming than _Dean_.

Sam fell for him very hard and very fast. But he never let Gabriel close enough to touch.

He couldn’t. For fear that Gabriel wouldn’t be his soulmate. For fear that he _would_.

Sam’s soulmate stain was…unique. Lots of people had stains on their hands that would mean handshakes, or a touch on the shoulder like Cas and Dean had had. Lots of others had stains just barely across their knuckles, either punching out The One or simply brushing hands together. It seemed there were a myriad of stains that were overwhelmingly common.

Even Gabriel. Both his hands were stained, palms and the undersides of his fingers coated in inky black. Sam had to admit he tried to subtly check the state of Gabriel’s hands every time they saw each other. Every time the same old opaque black met him, it made relief billow through him.

It meant that even if Sam wasn’t Gabriel’s soulmate, at the very least Gabriel hadn’t found his yet, and Sam wouldn’t have to suffer through watching them together.

Sam’s stains had always felt weird to him. Handprints curled around his upper arms, a hairsbreadth away from his armpits. Like someone would lift him up by his arms. Or drag him somewhere.

Sam kind of hated them. They were far from mundane, which definitely made things less terrifying. Every handshake wasn’t charged with anticipation.

But he had no _idea_ how it was going to make sense for his soulmate to touch him there. It made him antsy.

So, yes, Sam was totally screwed. And yes, he did give in and agree to go to the party.

And everything was…kind of good for a while. Dean and Cas were off somewhere being Dean and Cas, Sam ran into a few of his other friends, and…mostly hung out with Gabriel.

Got _drunk_ with Gabriel. God, he was gorgeous. And funny. And sweet. And it made Sam’s throat hurt to be with him.

His solution turned out to be drowning it in alcohol.

No amount of cheap beer could cover how gorgeous Gabriel was, though. And sweet. And even more funny now.

All of that…kind of backfired on Sam, though.

See, there was an inground pool at this particular house. And Sam and Gabriel were hanging out on the side of it.

Which was all well and fine.

Other than the fact that Sam’s balance went completely and utterly down the toilet as soon as he got more than tipsy. And the fact that there were other people also walking back and forth around the pool.

And the fact that Sam was already teetering as he stood when someone accidentally bumped into him.

That was a very bad combination. It was more than enough to send Sam careening into the pool.

God, the water was _freezing_. The first week in April did not lend itself well to warm water.

The water was freezing. Sam had never been a particularly apt swimmer. Sam was also wearing jeans and at least three layers. And Sam was very, very drunk.

All of that basically culminated in Sam flailing around in the deep end instead of doing something useful with himself, like kicking to the surface. At the very least, he remembered to hold his breath.

Someone’s hands closed around his arms. A hairsbreadth away from his armpits. His skin _burned_.

Sam was yanked out of the pool, onto the side, and he spent a moment coughing and panting, wincing at the unpleasant burning in his skin, in his lungs, before he had the presence of mind to figure out who had gotten him out.

And then he looked up into Gabriel’s very pretty, very wide eyes. He was dripping pool water right along with Sam.

The realization sobered Sam up. Fast. He stared at Gabriel for a long moment, utterly horrified, before he rushed away without even a thank you, banging the back door behind him as he entered the house.

Sam stumbled through that house like his ass was on fire. He needed Dean. Or Cas. Or both. He wasn’t picky.

He did find Cas, standing against the wall in the kitchen with a bottle of water in his hand. Dean wasn’t with him. Sam didn’t really care.

“Cas,” Sam said, skidding to a stop in front of him. “Cas, we gotta go.”

Cas’s face morphed into confusion. “Why? What’s wrong? ….Why are you _wet_?”

“I fell into the pool,” Sam said hurriedly. “We gotta go.”

He didn’t wait for Cas to answer, just grabbed him by the arm and started pulling him toward the front door.

“What—you _fell into the pool_?” Cas managed. “Sam, slow down!”

Sam did not slow down. Sam didn’t slow down until they were outside and far enough down the sidewalk that Baby’s shiny chrome came into view.

“Sam,” Cas said again as they reached the car. “Sam, what about Dean?”

Sam just pushed a hand through his sodden hair. “We’ll call him. Tell him to come to the car, or something. We just…I have to go home.”

“Okay,” Cas said. “That’s fine. I just don’t understand what’s going on.”

Sam looked at him for a long moment. “I…I think my soulmate touched me,” he finally said, just as Dean came into view, rushing down the sidewalk.

Cas’s face split into a smile. “That’s wonderful, Sam! Who is it?”

Sam…he couldn’t answer that. So it was very much a relief when Dean reached them.

“What the hell, you two? I leave for two seconds to take a piss and come back to barely catch sight of you running out of the house like bats out of hell.” He paused, eyes narrowing at Sam. “Why are you _wet_?”

“Dean,” Cas cut in. That smile was still on his face. “Sam’s soulmate touched him.”

“Sam’s soulmate touched him, that’s great. Doesn’t answer my ques—wait. Did you say Sam’s soulmate touched him?”

“ _Maybe_ ,” Sam stressed. “Maybe. I don’t know for sure.”

His words didn’t even seem to get through to Dean. He was just being subjected to the same dopey grins from both Cas _and_ Dean.

“Who’s the lucky someone, Sammy?” Dean asked. He looked like he’d just won the lottery.

“I don’t…can we just _go_?” Sam whined. He didn’t usually whine. He avoided all whining if he could help it. But he was drunk and now more than a little stressed out and he wanted Dean to stop grinning like that, damn it. It was creepy.

So they went. Sam got first shower on account of his unplanned pool dip, and he was careful not to look at his body or in the mirror as he peeled off his shirts. He had to take several deep breaths before he felt settled enough to open his eyes.

“ _Oh_ ,” Sam breathed. The handprints on his arms had bloomed. Burst into color. They were radiant, full of vibrant golds and blues and reds. Sam could name practically every color in the rainbow—and a few beyond that—filling in the handprints that had annoyed him for so long.

So…it _was_ Gabriel. Gabriel Novak was Sam Winchester’s soulmate. Sam Winchester was madly in love with Gabriel Novak, his _soulmate_.

Oh God. Oh _fuck_. Gabriel was his soulmate. And Sam just ran away from him.

Gabriel was his soulmate and Sam didn’t even check to see if his hands had exploded with color.

That was probably for the best, actually. There was no way Sam was Gabriel’s soulmate. He didn’t have that kind of good luck.

Sometimes soulmates ended in tragedy. Sometimes your soulmate had someone else as their soulmate. Sometimes the person you were madly in love with wasn’t your soulmate. Sometimes even your soulmate wasn’t madly in love with you.

It all just made Sam anxious. He’d never been very lucky in the romance department. There was no reason to assume he’d be lucky now.

So he made a plan. No matter how many times Dean and Cas asked (and it was quite a lot), Sam didn’t tell them who his soulmate was. He didn’t let anyone see his rainbow marks.

And most importantly, he avoided Gabriel completely.

It wasn’t fair. Sam knew it wasn’t fair. But the possibility of Gabriel’s hands being the same old ink-black as always was utterly terrifying. Sam didn’t know what he’d do with himself if that happened.

It wasn’t easy, either. Sure, Gabriel and Sam didn’t hang out every second of every day, but they were friends, and avoiding Gabriel meant repeatedly shooting down offers to hang out or suggestions for things to do together.

Sam was rather miserable about the whole thing. For one thing, he thrived in Gabriel’s company. The man was a highlight of his life, and it hurt to be without him so often.

For another thing, Sam didn’t exactly like that he was hiding from Dean and Cas about this whole thing.

For a third thing, Sam just…loved Gabriel with everything in him. Sure, Gabriel was a little shit who specialized in mischief and had singlehandedly earned the nickname “The Trickster” in their circle of friends. But he was also hilarious in this kind of deadpan, low-ball humor kind of way. He was sweet and compassionate, even though he tried very hard sometimes to cover it up with charming bravado.

There wasn’t a thing about Gabriel Novak that Sam _wasn’t_ in love with. Which was exactly why it was for the best that he avoided him. There’d be no awkwardness about not being each other’s soulmates. Gabriel wouldn’t start walking on eggshells, and Sam wouldn’t have to feel his heart splinter every time Gabriel laughed.

It was just better this way.

* * *

Until it wasn’t. About three weeks after the party, knee-deep in studying for finals, their doorbell rang.

Cas or Dean usually liked to answer the door. Made them feel domestic or something. But this time, Dean just yelled down the hall for Sam to get it.

Sam rolled his eyes. Knowing his brother, it was either more takeout food for him, some arbitrary impulse Amazon buy, or takeout food for Cas.

It was…none of those things. Sam’s mouth immediately went dry as soon as he got the door open.

He had never seen Gabriel look so…serious. There wasn’t even a hint of a smile in his face or mirth in his voice when he said, “Sam, we need to talk.”

God, Sam hated that sentence. It lead to bad far more often than it lead to good.

Sam knew. His gig was up. There was no more avoiding this.

“Okay,” he said quietly, and stepped back to let Gabriel enter.

Gabriel lead them to Sam’s room. They’d hung out here so many times. Watching dumb YouTube videos, helping each other study. Playing stupid games, competing to find the dumbest meme.

None of those things were about to happen now, Sam knew. Maybe they’d never happen again.

“Sam,” Gabriel said again. His shoulders were all hunched forward, hands buried in his pockets. His presence felt so much smaller than Sam was used to. “I…You’re avoiding me.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes,” Sam admitted. There was no use in lying about this part. Or about anything. The gig was definitely up.

Gabriel sucked a breath in like he’d been socked in the gut. “Why?”

“I-“ Sam’s throat clicked. He swallowed and tried again. “I have a reason for it. I promise. But…you might hate me for it.”

“Hate you for it?” Gabriel gave him an odd look. “I don’t think I’m capable of hating you.”

Oh, Sam hoped that was true. He’d heard horror stories about people being angry that someone else had them as a soulmate when it wasn’t the person they wanted.

There was a long, heavy moment of dead silence.

“You know the night of that party?” Sam asked.

“The one where I pulled you out of a pool and you took off? The last night you actually spoke to me. Yeah, I know it.”

Sam wanted to explain with words. He really did. But they got all gummed up in his throat, and he knew he wasn’t going to able to say it. Instead, he rolled back the sleeves of his short sleeve shirt until those damned rainbow handprints came into view.

Gabriel pulled in an audibly shaky breath. His wrists twitched like his hands wanted to jump out of their pockets.

“Was that…is it me?” Gabriel whispered.

Sam just nodded. His nerves were far too frayed for him to do anything else.

Gabriel’s entire demeanor changed then. His posture slumped. He let out a long sigh. His face shone with…relief?

Sam didn’t get it.

Sam didn’t get it, and then Gabriel pulled his hands out of his pockets.

His palms and fingers were a study in tie-dye. Dominated by vibrant golds and blues and reds, the same as Sam’s arms. Colored kaleidoscope with all the colors of the rainbow and beyond.

“Oh,” Sam breathed.

“I was going to ask you,” Gabriel said. His voice sounded _so_ much less somber now. “That night. If your arms were the same. But you ran before I could, and then…and then I was sure that I had to have touched you before then, anyway, and then I just…there was no way that you were my soulmate. And then you were avoiding me. And I decided I didn’t care whether you were my soulmate or not, because I wanted to be around you.”

Gabriel was gearing up to keep going.

“Gabriel,” Sam said, cutting him off before he could say anything else. “Shut up.”

Gabriel looked almost offended for a moment, but then Sam had made it across the room and was grabbing his gorgeous face in both hands and pulling him into a kiss.

Gabriel’s mouth tasted like candy. This was the least surprising part about kissing him. The most surprising part, of course, was the fact that they _were_ kissing.

Sam was kissing Gabriel Novak. The man he was madly in love with. His soulmate.

Sam was _Gabriel’s_ soulmate.

And then Gabriel’s hands were on Sam’s face, in Sam’s hair. Their bodies were pressed up tight against each other. Sam broke the kiss to just…pull Gabriel into the tightest embrace of his life.

“I was so worried,” Gabriel murmured. “I thought you weren’t gonna have me.”

“I thought you weren’t gonna have me, either,” Sam said. “It’d be just my luck.”

Gabriel stroked a thumb over Sam’s cheek. “You are my luck.”

“Sap,” Sam said, and then they were kissing again.

Sam Winchester was in love with Gabriel Novak. Sam Winchester and Gabriel Novak were soulmates. And nothing and no one was going to tear them apart.


End file.
